Andrew Manson - Land, Chiefs, Mining : South Africas North West Province since 1840-2013

LAND CHIEFS MINING

SOUTH AFRICAS NORTH WEST PROVINCE SINCE 1840

ANDREW MANSON AND BERNARD K MBENGA

Published in South Africa by:

Wits University Press

1 Jan Smuts Avenue

Johannesburg

www.witspress.co.za

Copyright Andrew Manson and Bernard K Mbenga 2014

First published 2014

ISBN 978-1-86814-771-7 (print)

ISBN 978-1-86814-772-4 (digital)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978. All images reproduced in this book remain the property of the copyright holders. The publishers gratefully acknowledge the institutions and individuals referenced in the captions for the use of images.

Project managed by Monica Seeber

Cover design and layout by Hothouse South Africa

Printed and bound by Interpak

Acknowledgements

Many people, too numerous to mention, over the period of thirty years during which we have been studying and writing on the regions past, have afforded us invaluable insights and encouragement. We should like to single out Professor Sue Newton-King, formerly head of the Department of History at the University of Bophuthatswana (now North-West University, Mafikeng campus), who provided the start and enthusiasm required to embark on our respective paths as historians. We should also like to thank Jane Carruthers, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History, at the University of South Africa, who took the time to read and comment on a much earlier draft of this book. Her remarks helped tremendously in the final outcome of this project. Any shortcomings are entirely ours. We should also like to thank Eugene Breytenbach, Deputy-Director, Directorate of Information and Management, Office of the Premier, North West Provinc e, and Liesl de Swardt, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, North-West University, Potchefstroom, for the production of maps. Our gratitude goes to Abe Madibo for photographs and to Paul Weinberg, Gille de Vlieg and Joe Alfers for the use of photographic material. And once again we are indebted to Elenore van der Riet of Hermanus for excellent translations of German scripts.

Terminology

We have chosen to employ the African prefixes when referring to the various communities about which we write. Thus we refer to the baHurutshe or baTswana in contrast to the academic norm which omits the prefix and retains only the stem: Hurutshe, Tswana. When used as an adjective the prefix ba is omitted.

Glossary of Setswana and Afrikaans names

MAP 1: North West Province: Location (2013)

MAP 2: North West Province: Bushveld Region showing some towns, villages, roads, rivers and mountains (2013)

MAP 3: North West Province: Vryburg Region showing some towns, villages, roads, rivers and dams (2013)

MAP 4: North West Province: current ethnic areas (2013)

MAP 5: North West Province: Rustenburg Region Platinum mining areas (2013)

MAP 6: The Bechuanaland Reserves (2013)

MAP 7: Native Reserves in Vryburg District (2013)

Introduction

This book deals with aspects of the history of the black, predominantly Setswanaspeaking population of todays North West Province of South Africa. It covers the period from approximately1840, with the beginning of settler and colonial domination, to the present. It is not a comprehensive account but, rather, a number of interrelated chapters on different topics which chart the various political and economic forces that have shaped the fortunes of communities and personalities in the province.

The North West Province is a recent geographical construct that arose out of the Constitution underpinning the new democratic dispensation in 1994. It comprises parts of the former western Transvaal, most of the former homeland of Bophuthatswana, and the northern reaches of the Cape Colony, later Cape Province (see ). In one sense, the construct is not entirely artificial, for its inhabitants broadly comprise two culturally and politically homogeneous units Setswana-speakers and Afrikaners who have experienced close to 200 years of contact with one another. This is not to suggest that both societies were sealed off from outside influences. Both had extensive contact with their surrounding inhabitants and there was a constant infusion of other people into this region over a long period of time. Both societies interacted with British colonialism and bore the imprint of that association.